Amanda Meade takes redundancy

For almost two decades, Amanda Meade has reported on the goings on in the Australian media, including the many redundancies and other job losses that have affected the industry, particularly in recent years. Now Amanda is taking redundancy herself. On her last day on the job, she explains what it feels like to experience rather than just report on redundancy and reflects on some of the broader issues in the media today.

Transcript

Richard Aedy: Hello. Richard Aedy here. This is the Media Report on RN. Today a departure for the great Australian wire service AAP—they’re getting into the byline business. They’ve just started. That’s coming up, as is an interview with the editor of a magazine whose circulation is going up, Edwina McCann of Vogue.

But we begin with Amanda Meade. Chances are you already know who she is and if you do, you probably know why we’re talking to her today. But if you don’t, Amanda Meade is senior media writer at The Australian. She’s been at the Aus for 18 years and covering media for most of it. She’s seen a lot, written a lot. Few who report on the media have her perspective and frame of reference. And this evening, in about half an hour, she finishes.

Of course it’s been a big year for redundancies, for journalists leaving papers especially. So does she remember the moment she decided to do the same?

Amanda Meade: Yes. And it was probably when we had yet another change of editor and we had to adapt to more changes. But in the background I’d been thinking about it for a long time. I’ve been there for 18 years. So obviously you get a very good payout. So, you know, I have two years’ pay now to decide what I want to do in the future. And as a single mother I wanted something a bit more flexible, and as newspapers get more and more frenetic and less and less staff it’s harder to be flexible. So I thought that I could try, maybe, and find something else even though that might sound naïve when there’s so many journalists losing their jobs.

Richard Aedy: So you were thinking, I’ve been here some time, I’ll get a good payout. The other thing I suppose that was happening was, although News hasn’t made a big fuss about it, it has been letting a lot of people go over the last few months hasn’t it?

Amanda Meade: Yes. We never put a number on it. And we thought The Australian was going to be immune. But then, I can’t remember how many months ago, they did say that there would be, I think, 25–30 people. I didn’t put my hand up in that rush because it was actually only announced and then it was just a few days before the deadline. But I think after that I did start thinking about it. And there’s been a second wave of people in recent weeks have gone.

Richard Aedy: And it’s been almost at the stage where every week someone’s going.

Amanda Meade: Yes. Yes. We have. We’ve had a lot of farewells. In particular the sub-editors; I think they were the first ones to go. They’ve let a lot of sub-editors go, probably too many. But yes, every week it’s been farewells.

Richard Aedy: So 18 years at The Australian. Most of that time, nearly all of it, you’ve been covering the media.

Amanda Meade: Yes, 15 out of the 18 years.

Richard Aedy: So what’s changed in that time?

Amanda Meade: What hasn’t changed? I mean absolutely everything has changed. When I started, you know, we’d never heard of blogs or podcasts or Twitter or anything like that. It was really just covering things like cash-for-comment, the ABC, commercial television. And then I remember laughing in our media conference, our weekly conference, about these strange words that were coming up. And I remember, you know, Phillip Adams was the first one who had a lot of ‘podcasts’ of his program. And then that all became mainstream and we started reporting on that digital side of the business as well.

When I started Channel Nine was dominant and then…

Richard Aedy: Still the One.

Amanda Meade: Still the One. Yes. And actually one of my most famous run-ins was with David Leckie because we had a page one story with the headline saying, ‘Not Still the One’. And that was when he was at Channel Nine.

Richard Aedy: Yes, hated that.

Amanda Meade: Hated that! And as you know, reporters aren’t responsible for the headlines but…

Richard Aedy: You still get to enjoy them when they’re really good.

Amanda Meade: When they’re good. And so I’ve watched Channel Nine go under and go through turmoil. And then in the last year or so come back again. So, look, everything’s changed.

Richard Aedy: What are the challenges? Because media people are, you know, very articulate—they tend to be articulate—they tend to be gossipy and indiscreet. But they’re also nuanced about what they’ll say because they know how it’s going to play out.

Amanda Meade: You’d be surprised actually; only the smart ones are really nuanced. I think the biggest lesson is when you talk to people you can’t get off the phone and tell everyone in the newsroom who you’ve just talked to. Because that…it gets back. And I learned that very, very early on. You cannot, literally, cannot tell anyone who you’ve talked to.

The other thing is, journalists hate being written about. They’re incredibly sensitive, incredibly thin-skinned. And, you know, they can dish it out to other people but they hate being written about themselves. Some TV personalities are very, very protective of their image. And I’ve actually been called to summits to discuss what I’ve been writing about someone and how we can possibly fix it because they didn’t like it. And…

Richard Aedy: Do you feel like you’ve been basically a naughty…

Amanda Meade: Yes.

Richard Aedy: A naughty at school…

Amanda Meade: Absolutely.

Richard Aedy: …person at that point.

Amanda Meade: Yes. Yes. And people think, if you write one or two things about someone that are negative, they think you somehow have something against them, an agenda against them. Whereas it’s not that; you’re just reporting what they’ve done.

Richard Aedy: Right. So people take things personally.

Amanda Meade: Yes.

Richard Aedy: Even though they’re in an industry where they ought to know better really.

Amanda Meade: Yes, yes, very personally.

Richard Aedy: Okay. So how well overall do you think the media covers the media?

Amanda Meade: Well people on the newspaper for example, don’t really understand how television works and vice versa. And then there are the tensions between News Limited and the ABC, between News Limited and Fairfax. And all these things play into how we report each other.

Richard Aedy: So it’s quite political in a way?

Amanda Meade: Oh it’s very political, yes. I’ve been lucky because I’ve concentrated on television, which is less political. I think if you write about newspapers when you work for News Limited obviously it’s more political. It’s been quite political writing about the ABC. So yes, it’s not…I think they say, being the media editor is a poisoned chalice. You know, it’s a very, very hard job to do, to walk that fine line between being fair andexact, basically.

Richard Aedy: Yes. So have there been times when you felt conflicted or unhappy at The Australian?

Amanda Meade: Conflicted? I think every journalist feels conflicted at some stage because you go after a story and you feel quite driven to nail it. And then when you step back and look at the people involved you feel sad, you feel bad for them because they’re about to be exposed for something. So I found that difficult.

I’ve been politically conflicted, yes probably, because I didn’t share the editorial line of the paper most of the time in relation to say, the ABC. But I have been able to carry on reporting the ABC as I please, or as I see fit, and they’ve always run my stories. So it doesn’t always matter what you actually believe in a personal sense.

Richard Aedy: So what’s been your favourite story do you think Amanda in all this time?

Amanda Meade: Well Jonathan Shier was pretty good fun at the ABC, the managing director…

Richard Aedy: Not if, not if you were here I have to say.

Amanda Meade: No…about ten years ago. It was one of those times when, you know, sometimes as a journalist you see something before anybody else does because your instinct just tells you, this is not going to work. And when he had his first press conference I remember thinking, oh my goodness, this guy’s crazy, this is not going to work, you know. And then just standing back and watching it—you know, what was it, 20 months or something of him tearing the place apart and then getting booted out. So that was good fun. I mean watching characters like, you know, David Leckie Peter Meakin, all the excesses of commercial television, from Cannibals to...you know, all those incredible scandals. It’s just great fun.

Richard Aedy: So what are you going to miss?

Amanda Meade: Chasing news. Not having somewhere to put something. I’ve been thinking about, what if I find something out and then I’ve got no one to tell? You know? Will I give it to people at work or will I just put it on Twitter or will I start a blog, you know? I really love chasing news so I don’t want to give it up.

Richard Aedy: So what’s tonight going to be like then?

Amanda Meade: I don’t know. I feel quite calm about it actually. I think the question is, what’s next week going to feel like, you know? It all feels great now but maybe next week I’ll just feel like chopped liver.

Richard Aedy: So you don’t really know what you’re going to do.

Amanda Meade: No. I don’t.

Richard Aedy: You’ve got a bit of time up your sleeve to sort it out.

Amanda Meade: Yes.

Richard Aedy: I hope you get to have a good break.

Amanda Meade: Thank you.

Richard Aedy: Amanda Meade, possessor of one of the finest laughs in journalism. Good luck to her.

This is the Media Report on RN. I’m Richard Aedy. And actually putting two and two together you could imagine Amanda Meade popping up in this next story.